Dell Inspiron 15-5547 Notebook Review

Minimalistic, yet captivating? You'd like to purchase an affordable multimedia laptop with a sleek design and decent gaming capabilities? In that case, Dell might be onto something with its Inspiron 15-5547. Our review will show which quality levels can truly be achieved for less than 600 Euros (~$802).

Nowadays, what can be had for just 579 Euros (~$774)? In some larger cities, this is barely enough for one month's rent. Alternatively, the Dell Inspiron 15-5547 can be purchased for this amount of money, a multimedia laptop with a sleek (though simple) design and a dedicated GPU made by AMD. Our review will show whether it is actually worth it.

Dell's Inspiron series of multimedia laptops now comes in three different categories, ranging from the extremely cheap Inspiron 15, entry-level models with an Intel Pentium or an Intel Core i3 CPU (the 3000 series) and the exclusive 7000 series ultrabooks with aluminum cases and touchscreens.

The Inspiron 5000 laptops are placed in between. While they may not ship with a metal chassis, its plastic case comes with a much better build quality than that of the 3000 series devices. In addition, the 5000 series provides more performance: Our test device ships with both an Intel Core i5-4210U and a dedicated GPU made by AMD.

Case

Plastic on the inside, aluminum on the outside.

As already mentioned, the 5000 series marks the new middle-class when it comes to the Inspiron series, with a premium plastic chassis and even a lid made from brushed aluminum. Dell tends to change the design of its laptops from generation to generation, and the same holds true with the Inspiron 15-5547: The chassis has been revamped completely. While the de-facto predecessor, the Inspiron 15R, already used a combination of aluminum and plastic for its case, it felt a lot bulkier and less elegant than the Inspiron 15-5547.

There's not much choice in terms of colors: A combination of black and silver, that's it. We do, however, like this choice a lot, and also the new, much slimmer shape when compared to the Inspiron 15R. The new Inspiron 15-5547 never exceeds 22 millimeters in height, and due to its slightly wedged shape and its non-vertical edges, it appears to be even thinner. The Inspiron 15R, however, measured 31.3 millimeters, although it shipped with an optical drive which our test device omits. Then again, the new model weighs 200 grams less, with just 2230 grams left. This is better than the entire competition - but all of these devices do ship with an optical drive.

Build quality is decent given its price, but there are some weaknesses. Although the case does ship with even clearances, the surface around the palm rest can actually be pulled up a bit, leading to a clearance between it and the rest of the base unit. Another gap can be felt between the metal lid and the display frame, and again, both parts can be pried apart. In addition, there is not enough torsion resistance, especially when pressure is applied at the edges. The same holds true for the display lid (despite being made from aluminum), with image distortions becoming visible once pressure is applied.

Our overall impression: Great design - the Inspiron 15-5547 looks both minimalistic and sleek, especially when considering its price point - but mediocre build quality.

Connectivity

All ports are located at the rear halves of both sides - which is great, as they don't stand much risk of becoming a nuisance there (e.g. when connecting a mouse). Since the display actually extends beyond the rear edge of the device once the laptop is opened, no ports can be found there.

The slim chassis makes it necessary to reduce the number of available ports: Two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI out, Ethernet, a card reader and a combined Line In/Out port - not much for a 15-inch device, especially since there is no optical drive (which all of its competitors have), and even more so since e.g. the HP Pavilion 15 manages to integrate a DVD burner without being noticeably thicker than our test device (22.6 millimeters instead of 22 millimeters).

The 1 TB HDD is no unique feature either - most other laptops ship with a similarly sized one.

Communication

An Ethernet port can be found on the right-hand side of the chassis but is not capable of more than 100 Mbit/s (no Gigabit Ethernet). In terms of Wi-Fi, however, Dell has (by using a Wireless-AC 3160 modem) included all standards, both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz bands and even 802.11 ac.

Wireless reception quality is great - even at a distance of 10 meters (with two walls in between), four or even five out of five bars could be measured, and even though two additional meters (and an additional wall) decrease this value to two bars, webpages still load rather quickly.

Maintenance

In terms of maintenance, Dell attempts to make it as easy as possible for its customers to access their devices. Many laptops even ship with guides telling the user how to swap different components. In the case of the Dell Inspiron 15-5547, it takes just two screws to open the maintenance hatch and gain access to the battery, the HDD and the RAM modules. In addition, the Wi-Fi module could be swapped and the fan could be cleaned, too. The only weakness: The battery is now placed inside so that it cannot be swapped as easily as with earlier models.

Warranty

12 months of pickup and repair service are included. It costs a rather proud sum of 59 Euros (~$78) to upgrade to an on-site service with premium phone support, while 12 additional months can be had for 89 Euros, ~$118 (three or four years in total: 139 Euros (~$185) and 199 Euros (~$266), respectively).

Input Devices

Keyboard

The chiclet-style keyboard comes with a separate numpad and large keys (14x14 millimeters) set 4 millimeters apart - great for a fast typing experience (with the exception of the smallish arrow keys and the numpad keys, which measure only 12 millimeters in terms of width). The function keys fulfill two roles at once, with the special keys (such as volume up/down or screen brightness) being the standard choice. Still, although the F1 to F12 keys can only be accessed by simultaneously pressing the Fn key, this priority setting can be reversed when opening the Dell control panel. Even better: Important key combinations such as Alt+F4 for quickly closing apps always work, even without pressing the Fn key.

The keyboard bed barely flexes during typing (only when a lot of pressure is applied). The keys are easy to press, offering soft (and thus often insufficient) feedback. Key travel is decent, and overall the keyboard is fun to use although it is not terribly precise.

Touchpad

The touchpad is actually a ClickPad, meaning that the mouse buttons have been integrated directly into the touch-sensitive area. They are rather loud, but their pressure point is easily discernible. Those who are used to keeping one finger on the left or right mouse button might want to reconsider since the second finger is well capable of irritating the touchpad. Overall, the ClickPad is rather large (diameter: 12.5 centimeters), its gliding properties are nice and it doesn't get smudgy.

Those who are not bitterly opposed to ClickPads in general will not find too much to criticize about the one used by the Dell Inspiron 15-5547.

Further input options

Optionally, a touchscreen can be had as well - although this means that no dedicated GPU can be selected (at least according to the currently available variants on Dell's website).

Keyboard

ClickPad

Display

Even though most manufacturers have started to realize that many customers do not, in fact, prefer glossy displays, Dell once more chooses to go down the reflective route with its Inspiron 15-5547. The glossy panel comes with a resolution of (just) 1366x768 pixels, and in contrast to its predecessor (the Dell Inspiron 15R), there is no optional Full HD variant available - these are only available for the Inspiron 15 7000 series.

The brightness of the LED display isn't great either: Just 178.2 cd/m² on average is pretty dim (and darker than that of almost all competitors), although brightness homogeneity is decent at 86%.

Thanks to more-than-decent black levels of 0.25 cd/m², the contrast ratio is still pretty good at 764:1, rendering blacks as blacks, without too much of a grayish tint. Colors, however, don't feel very vivid or lifelike. In terms of sharpness, a non-Full HD display does show its weaknesses on a 15-inch screen, especially with all the high-resolution displays available.

Our hardware tools in combination with CalMAN software yield more precise measurements concerning color fidelity, revealing a noticeable bluish tint (leading to a "cool" impression of most colors). This can even be seen by taking a look at the grayscale rendition images where whites look more like blues, or at the color accuracy data points which are skewed as well.

The color (and grayscale) deviations when compared to the reference values of the sRGB color space are very high. Thus, the display is completely unsuitable for graphics and video professionals, at least as long as it is not calibrated. While the color deviations may not be a killer issue for most consumers, they will have to live with the cool colors of the screen.

CalMAN ColorChecker

CalMAN Grayscale

CalMAN Color saturation

Although the laptop appears to be well-suited for outdoor usage thanks to its slim profile and its somewhat reduced weight, this can only be accomplished on cloudy days. The low brightness of the screen and the glossy display make it hard to use outdoors - and even indoors, it can be tricky to find a spot where the reflections don't put too much strain on one's eyes.

Horizontal viewing-angle stability is quite decent, with just a little amount of brightness being lost when viewed from the sides. Vertical viewing-angle stability, however, is not decent. Color distortions occur quickly, making it even harder to try to identify colors with some accuracy (in addition to the blue tint). One can never be sure that one sees the "true" color as e.g. blues rapidly switch from bright to dark hues.

Outdoor usage

Viewing angles

Performance

The Dell Inspiron 15-5547 makes use of a low-voltage CPU, which reduces power consumption while also diminishing performance when compared to high-voltage CPUs. Still, the Intel Core i5-4210U with its clock speed of 1.7 GHz should be powerful enough for all common office tasks and even for most games. It is accompanied by a generous amount of 8 GB of RAM, a dedicated mid-range GPU (the AMD Radeon R7 M265) and a conventional HDD (with 1 TB of storage). While none of the pre-defined variants ship with an SSD, the hard drive could, of course, always be swapped later.

Dell offers three different variants of the Inspiron 15-5547, with a faster Intel Core i7-4510U CPU and an optional touchscreen being available. Otherwise, all three models are identical.

System information Dell Inspiron 15-5547

Processor

The Intel Core i5-4210U clocked at 1.7 GHz comes with two cores and a maximum turbo clock speed of up to 2.7 GHz or 2.4 GHz, depending on whether just one or both cores are active. Via Hyper-Threading, the CPU is capable of handling up to four tasks simultaneously. It requires up to 15 watts of power.

System Performance

When compared to the Dell Inspiron 15R-5537, our test device falls behind in terms of system performance by approx. 10% - most of this effect will be due to the lower clock speeds of the CPU used by our machine. Otherwise, it does take the lead in terms of system performance (by a slim margin) when compared to similar competitors thanks to its large amount of RAM.

During real-life usage, performance was almost always smooth, but there were quite a lot of unexpected loading times, and boot-up (of programs as well as the entire system) took quite a bit of time due to the conventional HDD - this would be different with an SSD.

Storage Devices

The Western Digital Scorpio Blue HDD with its 1 TB of storage and its 5400 rpm is no speed monster, reaching average data transfer rates when compared to the other media-centric laptops. Accordingly, some apps as well as the system take a bit longer to start, but, as already mentioned, one could always swap the HDD for an SSD to gain a noticeable speed boost.

Graphics Card

Our test device ships with two graphics cards, the dedicated AMD Radeon R7 M265 and the onboard Intel HD Graphics 4400. The former (the AMD Radeon R7 M265) comes with 2 GB of dedicated DDR3 memory and a clock speed of up to 825 MHz. Via AMD-Enduro technology, the system can always switch between both chips, depending on the current usage pattern. While idle or under light loads (e.g. for the Windows desktop and simple applications), the integrated (w.r.t. the CPU) low-power Intel HD Graphics 4400 is used. Unfortunately, Enduro is not quite there yet when compared to the more precise Nvidia Optimus system, requiring us to often manually insert certain games into the list of applications which should use the dedicated chip.

The CPU doesn't have much influence on the benchmark results of the most recent 3DMark suite. Here, our test device takes the last spot, behind all of its competitors, including its de-facto predecessor (the Inspiron 15R-5537 with an AMD Radeon HD 8850M) and the Acer Aspire E1-572G which uses the same GPU as our test device. Why is that? Dell has chosen not to use the faster 128-bit memory interface for the GPU. The next chapter will show how much of a difference that makes in terms of (gaming) performance.

Gaming Performance

Other laptops with the AMD Radeon R7 M265 offer a lot more gaming performance than our test device. The issue: Although the GPU would actually be capable of using its DDR3 memory via a 128-bit interface, Dell uses the slower, but cheaper variant with a 64-bit memory interface. This leads to a noticeable difference in terms of performance when compared to e.g. the Acer Aspire E1-572G or the Acer Aspire V5-561G (both ship with the same GPU while making use of a 128-bit memory interface) of approx. 20 fps when playing BioShock Infinite. For some games with details set to high (e.g. for Tomb Raider), this makes the difference between "still more or less playable" and "strongly stuttering."

The Dell Inspiron 15-5547 is still well-suited for older games such as Anno 2070 or less demanding titles such as Diablo III. These can even be played with medium or high details, using the native resolution of the display (1366x768). More recent games such as Thief or Assassin's Creed: Black Flag won't run smoothly - not even with everything set to minimum. It does depend on the engine, however, with e.g. Wolfenstein: The New Order running rather well even with medium settings.

Gamers who prefer fast action titles or multiplayer games will not be too happy with this machine, with the low frame rates (even for medium settings in most games) making it hard to compete with other players using more capable hardware.

Emissions

System Noise

Pretty slim and pretty quiet: That's the ideal for a laptop, at least for most people. However, such a feat is not always that easy to accomplish since all the innards need to fit inside the chassis - and they need to be cooled sufficiently.

The single fan used by the Dell Inspiron 15-5547 apparently doesn't have any problems getting rid of all the hot air: Unless gaming (or otherwise taxing its internal components), the fan can only be heard when one's ear is moved very close to the rear part of the machine. The HDD is almost inaudible, too.

Even under load, the Dell laptop remains a bit quieter than its competitors, at (usually) 36.5 dB(A) under load, with a peak value of 41.6 dB(A). So far so good - but what about the heat emissions?

Noise Level

Idle

29 / 29 / 29 dB(A)

HDD

29.8 dB(A)

Load

36.5 / 41.6 dB(A)

30 dBsilent

40 dB(A)audible

50 dB(A)loud

min: , med: , max: Voltcraft sl-300 (15 cm distance)

Temperature

Stress test

Unfortunately, under maximum load up to 51.2 °C is reached at the bottom of the notebook - too much to be used on one's lap. However, this only occurs when the laptop is being used under maximum load for a long time - even when gaming, actual temperatures are much lower (although possibly not low enough to make using it on one's lap much more comfortable).

Luckily, most of these heat emissions are located in the rear half of the device. The palm rest remains cool at all times. While idle, almost the entire laptop remains cool, with just a little excess heat at the bottom of the device.

Our stress test shows that the CPU cannot hold its turbo clock speed of 2.4 GHz when both CPU and GPU are put under full load; both cores remain at their standard clock speed of 1.7 GHz. Still, such a scenario will likely never occur in real life. During the Cinebench R15 benchmark (with high loads, but just for the CPU), the Intel Core i5-4210U has no problems remaining at its turbo clock speed at all times.

Speakers

The two stereo speakers are located right beneath the front rim. They are supported by the Waves Maxx Audio software, but while we were quite happy with the speakers used by the Inspiron 15R, these here fall into a different category. Maximum volume levels may be high, but there is nothing clear and balanced about the sounds the system produces under these conditions. Even when the volume is decreased, music sounds more as if listening through a speakerphone. In addition, highs are over-emphasized, making for a painful audio experience.

Audio quality also depends a lot on the kind of music being played. With Adele's "Skyfall" (with a large background orchestra), it quickly becomes hard to make out single instruments, and there is even some slight roaring. Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" works a lot better, as there are less instruments to be heard in the background.

The Waves Maxx Audio tool is hidden in the Dell Audio program. Different sound profiles can be chosen, but we recommend using either "music" or "movies," since the pre-defined "MaxxSense" profile leads to the aforementioned roaring, asking far too much of the already weak speakers.

Unfortunately, there is only a combined Line In/Out port, making it hard to connect microphone and speakers at the same time. The audio jack is, however, well-built, with no whooshing sounds being noticeable once high-end headphones are connected.

Energy Management

Power Consumption

Great: The Dell Inspiron 15-5547 doesn't draw a lot of power. More precisely, nothing at all when turned off. While this should be taken for granted, some competitors behave differently. Standby consumption is great, too, at just 0.1 watts.

Up to 6.1 watts while idle (thanks to the low-voltage CPU) is less than what the other comparable devices require. Under full load, up to 55.7 watts can be needed, an above-average value. However, such a behavior is the exception, with 37.3 watts being a more reasonable real-life assumption - and a rather lowish value when compared to its competitors.

Power Consumption

Off / Standby

0 / 0.1 Watt

Idle

3.5 / 5 / 6.1 Watt

Load

37.3 / 55.7 Watt

Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 940

Battery Life

At a first glance, battery life seems to be approx. on par with that of the Inspiron 15R-5537. Then again, the predecessor to our test device shipped with a much larger battery capacity of 65 Wh instead of the 34 Wh used by the Inspiron 15-5547 - making this result much more awe-inducing.

More than 6 hours of browsing time via Wi-Fi is indeed above average (most competitors offer around 4 hours), as is 5 hours of movie playback time - more than enough even for longer train rides. Generally speaking, the battery life of the Dell Inspiron 15-5547 is pretty capable of handling most everyday situations while also yielding a weight reduction due to the much smaller battery pack.

Battery Runtime

Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)

8h 9min

WiFi Surfing

6h 13min

Big Buck Bunny H.264 1080p

5h 12min

Load (maximum brightness)

1h 17min

Verdict

The Dell Inspiron 15-5547 is a solid, if a bit uninspired device. Dell's entry-level to mid-range multimedia laptop has become slimmer and lighter while retaining the above-average battery life of its predecessor. Maintenance has never been easier, too: It just takes two screws to reach its innards. The design is nice (the brushed aluminum lid actually feels like that of a high-end device), and its build quality is decent - given the price point. Wi-Fi reception is great (as is most of its connectivity) and the input devices are quite usable.

The graphics card comes with an unnecessary limitation: Due to Dell employing a 64-bit memory interface instead of the 128-bit used by the competition, the GPU is a lot slower than it should be. In addition, the laptop can run quite hot (which should be mentioned although it only happens rarely). The speakers are average at best, and don't even get us started about the dismal color accuracy of the display, making it hard to discern between different hues.

None of these weaknesses are completely unforgivable, and it should be evident that at such a price point, not everything can be perfect. Still, after such a nice first impression by the premium-looking chassis, issues such as the "throttled" GPU, the below-average display and the mediocre speakers wouldn't have been necessary.

Those looking for a slim, sleek laptop with good battery life while not in need for a gaming powerhouse, might have found the right device with the Dell Inspiron 15-5547. All others might want to have a closer look at the competition, as other devices offer more gaming performance for approximately the same amount of money. The Acer Aspire E1-572G ships with better speakers, and the MSI CX61 even comes with a decent matte Full HD display.